Resources

Cook Books I Use

This is an absolutely fabulous book, even if you are not a vegetarian! Each page is a new recipe and every recipe has pictures of the finished product
as well as the preparation process. Plus it has the break down of the nutritional information! Best.Cookbook.Ever!

This was one of the first cookbooks that I ever bought. I got it in a set with the Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book and The Pilsbury Cookbook, but I find that I use the Fannie Farmer far
more often than the other two. In fact, I have used it so much that it is now in two halves with some loose pages shoved in the middle. One of the things that I really like about this book is
that it has conversion tables, plus it covers cooking and baking basics. And there is a canning section!!

This book is the ultimate bread book. It explains not only how to bake bread using the bread machine, it explains the whole process of making various breads.
It covers various ingredients and the effect that they have on the bread. It even explains how to create your own starters! There are beautiful pictures with step-by-step visuals on how to make each bread.
Plus it has a recipe for just about every variety of bread that you may ever want to bake; and they have all been fabulous recipes!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

I had my best morel year ever. My son and I usually just saute the mushrooms and eat them as a treat, but I actually had enough to make some kind of a dish with the morels that I found. I wanted to keep it simple and mild, since this was the first time that I was actually cooking them into a dish and wanted to be sure they would hold their own.

So, although I was going to do a stroganoff or an Alfredo, I opted for a simple cream sauce. I basically went out to my garden and pulled what was available.

1 TBS olive oil

1-2 TBS garlic chives, chopped - whites and greens

1-2 TBS chives, chopped

Small leek, chopped - whites and tender greens

A few rosemary leaves, chopped (or a pinch of ground rosemary)

1/3 cup (or more) morel mushrooms, chopped

1-2 TBS flour

1/2-1 cup cream or half-n-half - enough to get consistency you want

Sea salt

Pepper

Saute the chives and leeks.

Add mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms are fully cooked.

Sprinkle in the flour and mix well.

Pour in cream/half-n-half a little at a time and mix well. You want to dissolve all the flour into the liquids.

Add the salt and pepper and cook until thickened.

I used this over egg noodles. It was delicious!!

The sauce was mild enough that the three mushrooms I used easily held their own. If you want to add a little more spice, like thyme or convert it to a stroganoff by adding sour cream, or an Alfredo by adding some Parmesan; I would add more morels. Heck, if I had had them, I would have added more anyway :)